Certain electrical cable in commercial use consists of braided fine wire of bare, tinned or plated copper which is not coated with dielectric material. Such cable can be used in the form of a sleeve having continuous circumference to be disposed around other electrical conductor wires for shielding against electromagnetic interference (EMI) when it is connected to ground at its terminations. The braided construction enables the cable to be expanded locally by stretching, separating the braids such as to create an aperture therethrough. Such cable also can be used by itself for grounding one article to another especially across limited distances between the articles, such as an electrified gate along an electrified fence, where the gate must be pivotable about an axis with respect to a fence portion; the braided construction of the cable enables it to be quite flexible for flexing when the gate is pivoted. Other uses include an automotive application for grounding a battery to chassis ground, and also some continuous power transmission uses where the electrical connection is to remain visible. One source of commercially available braided cable is Cooner Wire Company, Chatsworth, Calif.
Prior art methods of termination included soldering and reflow soldering, wire barrel crimping and also the application of eyelets such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,682.
It is desired to provide an improved method of terminating such cable with an electrical terminal for assuring that the cable is and remains electrically connected to another electrical conductive means during long-term in-service use.
It is also desired to provide a method of adapting braided fine wire cable for use with certain terminals of existing design.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,859,204 and 4,867,700 disclose a transition adapter which is crimped onto a flat power cable by penetrating the insulation covering the cable's conductor and also shearing through the conductor at a plurality of locations. The cable is of the type entering commercial use for transmitting electrical power of for example 75 amperes nominal, and includes a flat conductor one inch wide and about 0.020 inches thick with an extruded insulated coating of about 0.004 to 0.008 inches thick over each surface with the cable having a total thickness averaging about 0.034 inches. U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,650 discloses a similar transition adapter separable into two discrete adapters which is especially useful with dual conductor flat cable, wherein a pair of parallel spaced coplanar flat conductor strips having insulation extruded therearound define power and return paths for electrical power transmission. The adapters have opposed plate sections disposed along respective major surfaces of the cable, the plate sections including termination regions transversely thereacross having arrays of shearing wave shapes alternating with relief recesses of equal width. The wave shapes extending outwardly from the cable-proximate side and toward relief recesses in the opposed plate section, and when the plate sections are pressed together with the cable therebetween, the arrays of wave shapes shear the cable into strips and simultaneously press the sheared strips into the opposing relief recesses, forming a series of interlocking wave joints with the cable while exposing newly sheared edges of the cable conductor or conductors for electrical connection therewith. Low resistance copper inserts along the cable-remote surfaces of the adapters include wave shapes conforming to the adapter wave shapes so that the sheared conductor strips become disposed between sides of the insert wave shapes, as do the shearing edges of the adjacent wave shapes of the opposing adapter. Thereafter a staking process deforms the metal of the low resistance copper inserts against the conductor edges to define gas-tight, heat and vibration resistant electrical connections with the cable conductor and with the transition adapter, so that the inserts are electrically in series at a plurality of locations between the conductor and the adapter. A contact section is integrally included on the transition adapter and extends from the now-terminated cable end, enabling mating with corresponding contact means of an electrical connector, or a bus bar, or a power supply terminal, for example.